Birmingham politician Sion Simon: I regret ever working for News Of The World!

Former News of the World columnist and Birmingham Labour politician Sion Simon has said that the investigations into News International must continue, while admitting he regrets ever having worked for the Sunday.

Former News of the World columnist and Birmingham Labour politician Sion Simon has said that the investigations into News International must continue, while admitting he regrets ever having worked for the Sunday Times.

Mr Simon, who is campaigning to be the first elected mayor of Birmingham, wrote a political column for the paper 11 years ago, at a time when it was close to the Labour Party.

The former Erdington MP, speaking as details of the newspaper's closure emerged, said: “I worked there as a freelance for about a year. I went into the office once. At the time it seemed like a good thing. Labour was courting News International and it was a New Labour paper. 11 years on I wish I didn’t have it on my CV.”

He said that 12 months ago he was putting articles on his Labour Uncut website calling for News International to be thoroughly investigated. At that time we were posting articles by Tom Watson (West Bromwich MP) about phone hacking. People told us News International was too powerful and to big.

“They thought News International was as invincibile as it thought it was. I always believed the truth will out in the end.

“The closure of News of the World must not be the end of this. This company has not a shred of integrity. There must be a thorough investigation of The Sun and The Times.”